Questions

Severus awoke feeling like he had a hangover. Everything was a bit blurry around the edges of his vision. Observing his surroundings revealed he was in one of the beds of the Hogwarts infirmary. Groggily, he tried to recall what had happened, when a light trill reached his ears, and everything came blitzing back. The summons from the wyvern Patronus, the appearance of the phoenix, the bonding of both Harry and his self.

' Harry,' Severus thought, shuddering at the reminder of what lay in the depths of Harry's brain. All the hurt and pain flooded him, causing a jolt to his system. The visions he had seen, the blackness and the fear, filled him, leaving him a shaken mess. The worst was the dawning realization of the power this piece of the Dark Lord had over the boy. 'He's so close to losing himself to that thing,' Snape mused

'He won't though,' a soothing female voice whispered in a corner of his mind. Severus knew that this was the Phoenix speaking to him and it quelled some of the anxiety building in his core.

'But he was so close already, how can you be sure of that?' Severus thought back in retort, still not entirely convinced.

'I am sure of it, so long as we are there to help him,' she responded firmly yet gently, as though talking down to a child.

Severus trusted in this and his mind finally fully calmed. He realized his vision was clear again and any remnants of fatigue vanished as he heard voices coming from elsewhere in the room.

"I feel fine," Harry's voice proclaimed, as though he was answering Snape's unspoken fears.

"Right. Phoenix tears work wonders," a snarky Tonks replied. "Now if only he would've healed me."

'She,' Severus corrected internally, just as Harry said the same thing out loud.

The phoenix trilled again, a light tinkling noise to Severus' ear, confirming to all that she was in fact a lady.

"You mean to tell me that not only are you bonded to a phoenix, but that they're an extremely rare female?" Severus could hear the disbelief in Tonks' voice. He had to agree this was all an astonishing occurrence to say the least.

"Yeah, I guess," came Harry's nonchalant reply. "Not sure how I know that either, but I do."

Snape snorted slightly that the child had yet to figure out that they were picking up the knowledge from the phoenix herself.

"That might be the bonding. I mean, your connected now in some way, as in all magical bonds," Tonks spoke, showing she had at least some wisdom. A pause and then she continued with, "Just remember that this is a good thing, Harry."

Severus barely had time to take in that last statement, let alone figure out what Tonks meant by it, when the floo whooshed, followed by the sound of someone stepping out onto the stone floor.

Sitting bolt upright now, Severus found his wand hidden in his sleeve as always and threw open the curtains. The person who had stepped out was covered head to toe in soot, so it was hard to verify who it was. They pulled out their wand themselves and vanished the soot away, revealing a figure that at least looked like Madam Pomfrey, though he still had to confirm.

"What was the last potion you asked me to brew?" Severus demanded, brandishing his wand at them.

"Wolfsbane," Pomfrey responded promptly, lowering her wand as she said it. "I asked you to brew some for Remus; after all, it's the least I can do for the poor fellow. Now, what in Merlin's name is going on here?" she asked, looking around the room confusedly.

Severus stopped to fully take in the scene that lay outside his bed curtains himself. The first thing that caught his attention was the Phoenix, resting majestically on a headboard. She was more brilliant than he recalled, and she exuded an air of regalness that was hard to ignore. Drawing his eyes away from her though, he looked at the bed she was perched on. There was Harry, holding onto one of Tonks' hands, other arm wrapped supportively over her shoulder. He appeared to be well, maybe even healthier than before. No damage was visible on the surface, the only difference in appearance being that his scar was slightly more prominent, but now Severus knew that there were deeper wounds than physical ones to deal with. As he stared, Severus could see the broken, battered boy that lay just beneath.

A sudden throbbing pain pierced through Severus' brain as he gazed at Harry, causing him to double over, gasping. It felt like an assault on his mind, attacking him at his very core. Blackness bombarded him, surging with such fierceness that he thought he was going to lose himself. Falling to the ground, he clutched at his head, weeping, trying desperately to breathe. Every inhale was fiery, every exhale was ice. The warmth of the Phoenix wrapping her wings around him was the last thing he felt as the world around him faded.

‐--

Harry had been thoroughly taken aback when Madam Pomfrey had shown up, but for some reason the appearance of Snape surprised him even more. All Harry could do was gawk, as though he had never seen the man before; something about his demeanor seemed different. Maybe it was the fact that Snape was covered in blood, maybe it was the way he held himself, maybe it was the new sheen that seemed to wreath him, but Harry couldn't stop looking.

Then, Snape turned his gaze onto Harry, many emotions dancing on the surface, though Harry was unable to place them, except the last. He had seen that look of pity too many times before to not recognize it.

Something lurched violently within Harry, an anger greater than he had ever felt. The next thing he knew, Snape was keeled over, tears streaming down his face, appearing in agony. Madam Pomfrey had rushed over to help, but was brushed away by the Phoenix, who protectively wrapped her wings around the man before vanishing in a flash of crimson and fire, leaving Harry feeling empty and confused.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Madam Pomfrey repeated, looking between him and Tonks now.

--

Albus was frazzled to say the least. Nothing had gone how he thought it would in the vault, and he hadn't even had the time to make sure that Harry was well before the phoenix had whisked him, Severus and surprisingly Tonks, with it to who knew where. Then the goblins had kept him, interrogating him about every single detail of what had happened in the Vault.

In the beginning, he was loathe to tell them much of anything, but as time dragged on without outside word of what was happening, he relented and told them a half true story. He left out certain details, such as the fact that it was a horcrux, and stated that it was just an extremely dark, cursed object that he had come to destroy.

"I wasn't expecting the poor boy to find it first and be hurt by it," Albus had claimed, trying to buy some favour.

"Then why was the object destroyed?" they had asked.

"You know as well as I do that one of the swiftest ways to stop the effects of the curse is to remove the object from their grasp. I just went one step above and destroyed it while I was at it," Albus had smoothly lied in response.

"And what of the phoenix? What happened there?" they had questioned next.

That question was what Albus wanted to know too. Even though he himself was bonded to a phoenix and had witnessed one other, this one had a different aura about it. Not to mention the fact that not one, but two people had been bonded to the same phoenix. He had to admit, he was stumped and told them almost as much.

"That I do not precisely know, just that the bird bonded with the two of them," he had replied.

"Do you know where they went? Or why the girl got taken with them?" the goblins had then queried, causing Albus to become even more irritable.

"No, I do not, and I would be out there looking right now if you would let me go," Albus had insisted, since it was the truth.

They had finally relented, giving him the chance to make his way out of the bank, where he quickly discovered that not only could he not conjure a Patronus, but that he couldn't summon his phoenix either. This deeply troubled Albus, causing a sweeping fear to take over him. What should he do now?

After assessing his options, he finally settled on returning to Hogwarts through the floo, hoping to find out exactly what was going on.